Adamanta by T. Y. Carew & Jess Mountifield

A team of humans is willing to face almost insurmountable odds to save the human race from annihilation. But quite how safe from discovery and attack is the planet the research team has been secluded on?

Matt has spent her whole life helping her parents with research that could change the fate of the entire human race. She believes it’s time to take it to the next stage and use it in active combat, but is she really ready to join the war and fight for mankind?

Xander has dedicated his whole life to the military, keeping humans throughout the galaxy alive, no matter the risks. He’s struggling not to become disillusioned when, time and again, running away is the only option. Can he find the one thing humanity needs to turn the tide, and can he cope with that thing being a person?

“Come this way, Colonel, and we’ll get the demonstration underway,” Mr. Adair said, breaking into his inspection of the facility. He gave the man a brief nod, and allowed the scientists, followed closely by Drew, to lead the way.

“You said the metal can be used to harness brain-waves?” Drew said, speaking so fast Xander had to replay the question in his head to work out what had been asked.

“Yes. It is molded to a particular person’s thoughts and then responds to those thoughts. With some people it’s easier than with others, however.” The scientist grinned as they were led down a corridor and around a corner. The right hand side switched from the standard metal paneling to glass-filled sections running across the side of a training area. Inside, a young woman stood. She was barely above five foot, blindfolded, and her face was stern. Xander took in the array of dull gray short swords criss-crossing down her back. A matching small circle of the same sort of metal was fixed to her temple in line with her eyes, and several more were dotted about the floor, ceiling and walls.

Opposite them was a row of screens, each of them showing the picture of a camera feed that matched up with the dots around the room, except for one in the center that was almost black, but not quite the blank color when off.

“Our daughter, Mattie, will be demonstrating for you today. Of everyone here at the facility, she is the most proficient with the technology.” Mrs. Adair took a small step forward and pressed an intercom button on a small control panel set into the wall. “You ready, honey?”

Mattie gave an almost imperceptible nod but didn’t open her eyes. She then inhaled as her mom pressed a few more buttons. Three drones, designed to imitate Beltine Dairos, sprung from containers in the room and rushed the girl in the middle.

Still unable to see, she side-stepped the flailing arms of one as the two topmost swords in her stack of six flew out of the sheath and into her hands. Whirling, she cut down the second drone. The move was followed by a ducking roll underneath the live laser fire of the third. She landed in a crouch, facing it, and the sword flew in a straight line out of her hand to impale the drone right through its central nervous system. At the same time, another sword flew from the set on her back to block the downward strike of the first drone.

Xander’s mouth fell open as five small pellets darted out of a pocket on her thigh and tore into the circuits of the final drone standing. While Mattie stood up, the training robot hit the deck, sparking as the pellets ran a high voltage charge through it.

“Miss Adair!” her father yelled.

“Mattie?” Concern played in the mother’s voice, and Xander found himself wondering what had happened to make her parents cross with her after that demonstration. She evidently felt the same, as she ripped off her blindfold and looked their way. Immediately, the dark on the middle screen changed to a view of him, Drew and her parents through the glass that separated them. It was her own viewpoint on the display.

“What?” she asked when her father shook his head and her mother tutted.

“There was only meant to be one drone.”

“Why? I can handle five now. Three’s easy.” She grinned and nodded at Drew and Xander. Without her even looking, the swords moved around in the air until all of them were back in the holder strapped to her back. “Hi.”

“That was amazing,” Drew said before Xander could close his mouth and think of a suitable reply. Her smile widened, showing her teeth and lighting up her deep brown eyes.

“And live-fire, young lady… what were you thinking?” Mr. Adair said as he walked through the door that had just opened in one side of the room. Xander followed and went up to the nearest drone to inspect the damage Mattie had done. Mattie shrugged and walked over to him.

“You punctured the right fluid system, too.” Xander straightened and met her gaze. While she stared up at him, the small metal pellets she’d fired at it worked back out of the holes to come together in a group in front of him. After a few seconds of holding them there, Mattie reached out with her hand and took hold.

The mining shafts on Kudos have been producing increasingly smaller quantities of the mind-controllable Adamanta, but when you’re fighting an undefeatable enemy you have to use every advantage you can gain.

Colonel Xander and his crew are there to secure as much of it as possible for the human military force. When an explosion traps three of the crew in the mine, the race is on to save them as well as ascertain whether the small operation is under attack from the formidable Beltine.

The explosion might have been written off as an accident if Marx, the Kudos safety engineer, hadn’t found evidence of Xander’s own transport pod having been rigged with enough explosive to destroy the whole mine and every breathing being in its vicinity.

Who would want Xander and his crew dead? And what deadly secrets does Marx harbor?

Xander’s new mission puts his crew into the path of a Beltine hive ship. No one has survived such an encounter before.

But then, no one else has highly skilled Adamanta-equipped fighters on board, either. Even so, choosing to pick a fight with the Beltine is not a clever idea. Will the humans make it out alive once they enter the lion’s lair?

Join Xander, Mattie and her friends on this fast-paced adventure to find out.

Episode 4 – Anathema – Coming July 15th 2017

Episode 5 – Coming September 15th 2017

Episode 6 – Coming November 15th 2017

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T. Y. Carew is the pen name for an entire group of authors. They’ve come together to write the Adamanta series and other works in the same universe. So far, they consist of Stephen P. Scott, Andrew Bellingham, Ella Medler and Jess Mountifield. They’re a quirky bunch of writers, with a variety of genres under their belt and different elements to their styles we’ll hope you agree make an interesting blend. One thing they definitely have in common is the love of diving into a book and going on an adventure, be that reading or writing one!

This episode was written by Jess Mountifield.

Jess was born in the quaint village of Woodbridge in the UK, has spent some of her childhood in the States and now resides near the beautiful Roman city of Bath. She lives with her husband, Phil, and her very dapsy cat, Pleaides.

During her still relatively short life Jess has displayed an innate curiosity for learning new things and has therefore studied many subjects, from maths and the sciences, to history and drama. Jess now works full time as a writer, incorporating many of the subjects she has an interest in within her plots and characters.

When she’s not working she can often be found with friends, enjoying a vast array of films, ice skating or trekking all over the English countryside.

You can find out more about the author and her upcoming projects by following her on twitter or facebook, or at her blog.

The Adamanta project is all go now. The first and second episodes are out on pre-order (and so will the third be very soon), and episodes 4 and 5 are almost ready. We’re going for 6 episodes a year, and we have one slot left for this year, and of course, spaces from next year onward.

We have collated an Author Info Pack, which you can look through if you are considering contributing to this ongoing series. Genre: sci-fi. Length of episode: 20k words approx. Stay in the Adamanta world, but write your story. You have a core of ready characters, but can write your own and use as many or few of the original ones as you like. We’ll need to keep the series consistent, but other than that you have space to play.

What we’re looking for: good story, good writing, adherence to deadlines and a willingness to help promote the whole series.

Ask EllaMedler@papergoldpublishing.com for the link to the Info Pack if you’d like to have a look.